Artists of the Year 2009

#7 Britney Spears

After a few tumultuous years that found Spears in the tabloids more often than the charts, Britney redeemed herself with a pair of mega-hit singles -- "Womanizer" and "Circus" -- from her 2008 comeback album. A successful world tour brought her back to center stage, but the real proof of her rejuvenation was the one-off single "3," which debuted atop the Hot 100 chart in October. Spears was the first artist to enter the chart at No. 1 in more than three years.

Source: Billboard